Exeter rises on gold from Cerro Moro

VANCOUVER–News of the highest-grade intersection to date from the Cerro Moro gold-silver project, in Argentina, gave Exeter Resource (XRC-V, XRA-X) a nice share price lift.

Hole 373 returned a true bonanza intercept: 471.9 grams gold per tonne over 3.6 metres. The intercept extends high-grade mineralization on the Escondida vein 400 metres to the southeast, beyond the 2 km of vein already delineated.

Silver results are pending, but according to Exeter, visual logging suggests the silver grade will be similarly high.

The high-grade hit was a blind discovery. A series of shallow, reverse- circulation holes had previously tested for a southeast extension of the vein but returned only slightly anomalous gold values. Based on geophysical surveys that suggested the extension did exist, Exeter tried one deep hole and hit gold.

At the other end of the Escondida vein, two drill holes extended known mineralization 160 metres northwest. Hole 178 returned 5.1 grams gold and 249 grams silver per tonne over 2.2 metres from 127 metres depth and hole 254 cut 3 metres of 11.2 grams gold and 308 grams silver from 94 metres.

Extending the depth of the zone an additional 60 metres, hole 260 cut 3 metres of 11.5 grams gold and 72 grams silver from 57 metres, followed by 1.8 metres of 10.5 grams gold and 477 grams silver from 130 metres. Hole 258 returned numerous intercepts, including 2 metres of 2.9 grams gold and 28 grams silver from 157 metres, 8.3 metres of 1.7 grams gold and 72 grams silver from 202 metres, and 1 metre of 6.1 grams gold and 365 grams silver from 218 metres depth.

The drill results boosted Exeter’s share price more than 20 to close above $3.40. The company has a 52- week trading range of $2.05-5.92 and has 49.9 million shares issued.

Ground magnetic data show that the Escondida structure continues for another 2 km past the bonanza hit in hole 373. If that is the case, the zone would strike over a total of 4.3 km.

Exeter has resolved a set of reporting delay problems and now expects to be able to release results from Cerro Moro steadily. An additional 20 holes have already been punched into the main 1.5-km portion of the Escondida structure and all hit mineralization. The zone is now traced to a depth of 200 metres, starting at surface, though mineralization has been recorded at up to 300 metres depth.

Drilling is ongoing at the Gabriela silver vein, 3 km northeast of Escondida. Seven holes into the 700-metre-long structure are complete and five more are planned for the current drill program.

Over at Exeter’s other property, the Caspiche gold-copper project in Chile, results from recent drilling have defined a minimum footprint of 600 by 500 metres, still open to the east, west, south, and at depth.

Exeter only discovered the main zone at Caspiche last year. The company had been focused on Caspiche III, a potential high-grade epithermal zone, but was finding that mineralization lay deeper than expected. So the company decided to probe a pronounced induced-polarization anomaly with hole 13, which returned a lengthy, well-mineralized intercept. Focus shifted to the new main zone.

Results since consistently show a gold-mineralized oxide blanket 150 to 200 metres thick that covers a main gold-copper porphyry. Hole 15 cut 56 metres of oxide grading 0.35 gram gold, followed by 887 metres of porphyry averaging 0.62 gram gold and 0.27% copper. Hole 16 cored 92 metres of oxide running 0.41 gram gold and then hit 627 metres grading 1.08 grams gold and 0.43% copper. And hole 24 cut 209 metres grading 0.29 gram gold, followed by 557 metres averaging 0.36 gram gold and 0.15% copper.

The onset of winter forced suspension of drilling at two key holes. Hole 25, located between holes 15 and 16, returned 168 metres of 0.64 gram gold, followed by 124 metres of 1.17 grams gold and 0.36% copper but was suspended at 336 metres depth. And hole 26 had not yet reached mineralization when the rig was forced to quit.

Exeter plans to drill 46,000 metres at Caspiche starting in October, which should be sufficient to calculate resource estimates for both the oxide blanket and the underlying porphyry.